Something you don't see everyday : Thorens TD-124 with DIY linear tracking arm!

Kuzma does have the Airline.

Air Line - Kuzma Professional Turntables, Tonearms and Accessories

 

I love the Thorens, but do you think that the arm might be an early prototype for something else?

 

Vintage Thorens Turntable w/ Drawer & Accessories
Ends in 7hrs, @$923....

 

A drawer seems like a pretty sensible thing for a turntable.

 

Theory is one thing, reality another. Linear has advantages and disadvantages. I go for the simplest tools to do my job, as I am the repair technician who must keep it operational out of warranty and maintained. The best linear arms are superb, but also complex.

 

I am with the bunch that wants to get rid of the arm and put a 3009 instead.

 

No motor. Too much friction. Won't stay perpendicular to groove.

 

How do you set the tracking force with that arm?

 

Add more or less coins?

 

There are MANY versions of linear arms, some, like the ClearAudio arm rely on very low friction to allow the groove to pull the arm along a linear track, some rely on air to suspend the arm in a nearly frictionless state for the groove to again pull the arm along. Others, allowed for a tiny amount of pivoting, like a conventional arm, but a sensor would detect the position of the arm being no longer tangent to the groove and a motor would then pull the arm into the correct position. The Garrard used two arms and 4 pivots to cause the offset angle of the headshell to change to maintain tangency. Reed and Shroeder use a more or less conventional pivoted tonearm that sits on a base that rotates and moves the arm pivot point (based on the Thales circle geometry. I've seen most of these arm types and I once owned an air-bearing version myself. These arms tend to be complex and prone to failure. Also, while they cure the "problem" with conventional arms being only tangent to the groove at two points, they have their own set of compromises.

I would only be interested in the Reed T-5 arm myself, except I cannot justify the $18,000 price.

 

Zero 100....awful

 

The Trans-Fi, which is based on or similar to the arm shown on that Thorens, is supposed to sound terrific.
I've been using this arm since around 2006-7 and it's wonderful sounding; currently paired with a stone bodied Koetsu:

 

I have a Souther SLA-3 linear arm on a SOTA Sapphire. Really like it.